Teachings (Excerpts from Chapter 7 of Swamiji's memoirs)
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Advice
to Sadhaks
Over the years sincere sadhaks have come to our Sivananda Ashram in Ujaili seeking guidance in their sadhana, clarification of their doubts and solutions to their problems. Many spoke about their personal circumstances and the obstacles that they encountered in their spiritual practice. My advice to these sadhaks has been to strive lifelong to follow the directions given by Guruji in his books and songs. Guruji has shown the nature of Truth, and he has also shown how to reach it: follow yama and niyama; strive ceaselessly in your sadhana; develop faith. It is so simple, but we fail to grasp it because we want complicated things. We are looking for something miraculous to happen.
The prerequisite is morality. Yama and niyama are the foundation of all Yoga sadhana. Develop these virtues to the maximum degree.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his autobiography that when he was about 34 years old, he heard the Inner Voice saying that the observance of total celibacy was indispensable for further spiritual progress. Gandhiji was already doing selfless service, observing, mouna on Sundays, daily praying, reading Bhagavad Gita and sticking to yama and niyama: satyam, ahimsa, brahmacharya etc. All that was already there. But now he was convinced: "further progress is not possible unless I have TOTAL brahmacharya."
Gandhiji consulted his wife Kasturba, who agreed with his proposal. He was 34 or 35 years old and from that age until 79, for more than 40 years, he observed strict brahmacharya. This observance is the reason that his achievement is so great.
In one place Gandhiji said, "I want to think, but thoughts do not come." Ramana Maharshi read this statement and said, "He has Atma Jnana. An ordinary man struggles to control his thoughts and fails, whereas a Jnani has to persuade himself in order to engage in thoughts."
Thoughts are the last things to overcome. So long as thoughts are there, Atma Jnana is not there. Thought has to die a natural death. When the mind becomes unmind, then one doesn't see duality whatsoever. So long as the mind is there, duality is there, because thought is in duality. You think OF some object. Therefore your meditation is not real meditation. The meditation has to stop; but how does it stop? Only through meditation. Through thought alone thoughtlessness can come, and then you see the futility of thought. That is the way.
So long as there is thought, the thought itself is real and the things of which it thinks are also real. When you think of something it is real for you. Of how many things do we think? The whole world is dependent upon thought only.
In the Viveka Chudamani Shanakaracharya says: u áLR;fo|k euL;ksfrfjDrkA Avidya or ignorance is not different from mind. euksfg vfo|k The mind itself is maaya or avidya, and that is the cause of our bondage. rfLeu~ fou"Vs ldya fou"Ve~A When the mind is gone, the world is gone.
mTt`fHkrs·fLeu~ ldya fot`EHkrsA If the mind rises the whole world rises. Ojas power is necessary for us in order to control the mind totally. This energy, that otherwise would be spent, is being lodged in the brain in the form of ojas, and through that mental purity moral strength will come. After that, one will not go into marriage. Half the battle is won, half the realization is over. Only the other half is left, and for that we have to struggle because the other half is equally hard.
Even a married man who practices self control (brahmacharya) will not be like others. Moreover one can also evolve through the four ashramas: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprasta, and sannyasa, steadily and gradually. The task is very difficult for anyone, even if one goes all out.
vusdtUe lafl)Lrrks;kfr ijka xfre~A& says Bhagavad Gita. Having perfected oneself in many lives, one attains to the highest state. Spiritual realization cannot be obtained in one birth. It depends upon how much homework you have done in your last birth.
Guruji remarked many times, "If you develop even one virtue in one life, you have done more then enough, and you can do, mostly, only that much". We have to clear one chapter every birth in the Book of Realization, and it is really a difficult task.
One day Guruji told me: "Don't think that Self realization is such an easy job. You have to crush your bones to powder, and make paste of that, and then drink. Then probably you will have Self realization." It is really so. One cannot become even a sound scholar in one lifetime.
Actually, it all depends on the mind. Gandhiji never became a sannyasi. But his achievement is not inferior to the achievement of a sannyasi. It depends on your outlook. For him it was very clear. He said, "God realization is my goal of life, and selfless service is the means to purify the mind. Nature has made me a lawyer," perhaps he also thought, "and India needs service for obtaining independence. So this I will do, not to become Prime Minister, but only as a service in order to make my mind pure, and to engage it in spiritual life." And he did both.
He was so busy, but he never neglected spiritual life, and never went into unnecessary speculation, emotions and all that. He was a very sound man, and his ego was almost absent. The whole world praised him, and he was not elated. The whole world denounced him, and he was not dejected because he used to go by the Inner Voice.
Many told him, "You are a mahatma", but he said, "I am an ordinary man, why do you call me ‘mahatma’?" "We don't agree with you on this point. You appear as a mahatma to us, and are unlike others, therefore we call you ‘mahatma’, whether you like it or not". He appealed to them, "Please don't publish it, and don't address me as 'mahatma'. I want to become one, but I am not a mahatma, I am a seeker after Truth". Then he said, "Truth is higher than God. God is not Truth, but Truth is God".
That was his guidance. He stuck to Truth, and he used to call that Truth, "Ram". He always used to repeat, "Ram, Ram, Ram". Someone asked him, "You always say 'Ram', which 'Ram' do you mean?" He said, "Certainly not the son of Dasharatha, not a human being. What they call Brahman, Atma, I like to call 'Ram'. It appeals to me."
We are differently made, and though the Inner Voice is there for all, the question is, to what degree? It depends on how much mental purity we have, what vasanas we have already conquered, but otherwise basically, potentially, we are all divine; we all want happiness, anandam, peace, which are all synonymous terms, more or less.
The scriptures are telling us that Divinity is already there, deep within us. Now, we have to become aware of it, and be established in it. But when can this establishment take place? Only when the world becomes unreal.
What we grasp with our indriyas (senses) as different phenomena of the world are alone real for us. That which I see, that which I hear and, similarly, that which I think mentally is real to me. Therefore, so long as the physical and the mental worlds are real, God is not real, and vice-versa. It is advaita always: either the world is real or God is real. If God becomes real then the world becomes unreal.
Unfortunately, we are trying to perceive them both at the same time, but it won't work. We can have only one at one time. When we are fit to see God we cannot but do that. That stage will come, but it is a very slow process. Nevertheless, on having been achieved, it looks very easy. Says Ramana Maharshi, "Ah, it is the easiest thing in the world".
We are already the Self, and to be established in the Self should be easy; to see God who is outside somewhere in the temple or in any book, etc. is difficult; but you yourself are that thing which you are looking for. So having realized, one thinks that it is really so easy, and wonders, why it doesn't come to everyone?
But yet, paradoxically, the difficulty is there. As a matter-of-fact, both sides are there. To say that it is difficult is right, and to say that it is easy is also right. It all depends on our capacity and maturity to achieve it.
Abhyasa
How long should one do sadhana? Shankaracharya said clearly in the Viveka Chudamani:
izrhfrthZo
txrks% LoIuon~ Hkkffr ;korkA
rkofuUujUrja fo}u~ Lok/;klkiu;a dq:AA
"Learned aspirant, relentlessly strive to undo the super-imposition of Self on not-Self, till the sense of reality of the individual soul and the world vanishes, and both appear as dreamy entities."
Even now in the waking state things appear, but they should not appear to me as absolute reality. They are like a dream even in the waking state. That stage will come, in course of time. Until it comes you continuously have to dwell on your Self and remove the superimposition of Atma on Anatma, and Anatma on Atma. That is necessary till realization dawns.
That is the meaning: Can you feel the whole thing is "my creation only, and that there is no world apart from my own creation?"
"My self and the whole world is nothing but pure consciousness, and all this is created by me out of ignorance."
One who feels like this alone is the guru.
Until the time when the world is
experienced as unreal, as a mere dream, you should plod on and do your sadhana. As
Shankracharya said, vd`Rokn`';
foy;a vKkRok rÙoekReu% czºekfefr 'kCnku~ uks czºeHkforqegZfrA
Unless one dissolves the whole world, all that is experienced, and
realizes the Self, it is not possible to become Brahman. If the world is real, Atman
becomes unreal and if the Atman is
real the world becomes unreal. Mere
repetition of the Mahavakya, vga
czºekfLeA vga czºekfLeA(Aham Brahmasmi, Aham Brahmasmi) will not make
you Atmanishta.
czºekgfefr 'kCnkr~ uks czºeHkoforqeZgfrA He has given also an example, vd`Rok 'k=q foy;e~A. Without defeating the opposing monarch (or king), one can't become the king of kings. One must defeat his enemies, then only he can say ^jktkge~^A (I am King). Similar is this achievement, when the world appears as a long drawn out dream. "Deha kalpana, Jeeva kalpana, all is kalpana, deergha swapna, all is jalam, all is jugglery, all is maaya's tricks, all is maaya's fraud." Thus sang Swamiji.
The body is nothing but a mental creation, as it is in a dream, in which we create our body, we create the world and we take it to be real. But the moment we wake up, we dismiss all that as unreal. Even so, when Atma Jnana comes, the world appears as deergha swapna (a long drawn out dream). This will come by the dint of our meditation, at its own time.
Our duty is to go on doing, and when the fruit ripens it falls by itself. Therefore, no book and no Jnani has said after how much practice we would realize the Truth, because there is no such thing at all. After all, from the ultimate view-point realization itself is false. You are already that Truth, then where is the question of realizing in course of time?
Time itself is nothing but a mental creation: jagrat, swapna and sushupti are only mental modifications, created by the mind, and these cannot be brushed away by discussions or arguments. Therefore, our Swamiji never encouraged too much racking of our brains on such ultimate problems, such as: How did the world come into existence? Why did it come? Who has created it?
Someone asked him, "Swamiji, when did you realize?" His reply was, "It is a secret between God and myself". Because the question is absurd, the answer is also absurd.
Time is a mental creation. Therefore our experience rises only after the antahkarana (i.e. the mind), starts functioning. Beyond that it is all mystical, indescribable, and unthinkable.
All our experience is limited up to the mind level only. For that reason, the intellectual knowledge falls apart. We have to go beyond and land in intuition: then it is called Jnana. The mind can go only as far as declaring, "There is a state like that, and you have to achieve it."
This sort of encouragement can lead us forward, but through ordinary mind it is not possible to complete the task. And when the mind becomes pure, then knowledge comes through the mind itself, which at that stage is nothing but of the form of Brahman.] It comes through the mind, indeed, but this mind is shuddha Buddhi, a very pure intellect. There are different kinds of vasanas (mental modifications) in the mind, such as, deha vasana, etc. and the rishis said, eqfDra izkgqLrfngeqfu;ks oklukrkuoa ;r~A "being without vasanas, is tantamount to liberation". The obstacles for samadhi, therefore, are not outside oneself. Swamiji wrote, "The obstacles to Self-realization are not outside".
Then where are they? They must be inside, in the mind only. Mind itself is the thing which prevents realization. Mind is like the general manager of a company who does not care for the proprietor and proclaims, "I am everything".
It is the ego who says, "No, no, don't worry about Atma: I am everything, lUR;U;s izfrcU/kk%A There are other obstacles, but rs"kkesdaewyaizFkefodkjksHkoO;gadkj%A ahamkara (ego) is the first and ring leader. He will not allow Atma to manifest. But what is that ego? When you go looking for it, you can't find if, because it is not there.
ekularqfde~ekxZ.kd`rsuSoekule~A said Bhagwan (Ramana Maharshi), What is the mind? If you go in search of it, it is not there. As Newton searched for the reason for the fall of the apple, if you live with this question day and night, then alone you will realize that the thing itself which you are looking for does not exist, that the mind itself has no existence. The mind cannot stand the brilliance of the Atman, it will be dissolved, it will become that Brahman.
The mind goes in search of God, but it cannot coexist with Truth. The mind itself will have to go. Are we prepared to commit total suicide?
"Mr. so and so is a false non-entity. Brahman is the only real entity. You will behold unity in diversity." We are appalled: we don't want to lose ourselves.
We want to remain and enjoy that blissful state of Self-realization. Ordinary people think that spirituality means acquisition of so many wonderful things, but the fact is that the acquirer himself will have to quit. He should be dethroned. One should be prepared to lose completely his individuality, because it is opposed to Atma. When the one is there, the other can't come. That loss of individuality is true sannyasa, ;suR;stfl rrR;tA "That through which you renounce everything; you renounce that agent itself", i.e. the mind.
Now, the means is meditation. One should live with this problem for days or months or years until the goal is reached, until the whole thing becomes clear.
And what is the role of the guru, can he take me to the goal? People like to think like that, but it is not so. Even if my guru is perfect, I have to pay the same price which the guru himself paid.
Even in secular affairs it is the same. Suppose I am a Ph.D. and I have a son, can I make him a Ph.D. in five years? Even if I desire so, I cannot. Similarly Atma Jnana takes time. It is the greatest achievement, therefore it takes the longest time: it needs the greatest patience and requires the highest effort. It is perceived through direct perception and not by imagination or inference or by any other way.
Para Guruji, seeing the potential in me, wanted me to study Sanskrit. I was a little indifferent because I knew already three or four languages. Why should I rack my brain again in the study of one more language? But Swamiji said, "No, ji, it will be useful for you and for others, and it will come to you, you have the talent, and you can learn yourself". And indeed, I learned myself through English grammar.
Guruji could see my future, he could see my past and he could see my present state also. That was his greatness. Therefore he said, "He is a Swami for Uttarkashi", and now I'm sitting here. Then he said, “This is your life, you are not meant for work. You are working hard out of regard for me. You are persuading yourself to work, but you are not meant for work. You are meant for meditation, antarmukha, scholarship, Vedanta. You are an Advaitin. You have no aptitude for karma-kaanda or upasana-kaanda, but you are an Advaitin.” I was greatly surprised to hear all that. I was hardly 21 years old at that time. I wondered, "How did Swamiji come to know these things? I have never told him what I like".
On another occasion he said, "O ji, you are very deceptive. From outside observation you look like a man who knows nothing". So that was the advantage in having a Guru. He could give the right direction, at the right time, in the right way. That was all we needed.
To each one of us he would say something. To Vishnu Swami, the Yoga Vedanta Centre man, for instance, he said, "O ji, you have to go to the States and all over the world, they all are waiting for you. You have to teach Yoga Vedanta". Vishnuji's reply was, "Swamiji, I'm not going anywhere, where do I go? "Swamiji added, "No, no, it appears that you have got to go".
And now you can see what work he did. Undoubtedly, many have gone to the West giving some lectures here and there, and there it stopped, but not so in Vishnuji's case. He taught them not only the basics of Yoga Vedanta, he also introduced pooja, Bhagavatam and prayers which are all necessary, because these develop all the talents that are necessary for spiritual progress - the heart for devotion, the head for philosophy, and a healthy body for service, etc.
Guruji himself taught all these through his Synthesis of Yoga. But each person is different, so in my case my path was that of Advaita. I can do other things also, but this is my first love. Therefore I persuaded myself to do other things, and Guruji could see that. For eight years I struggled there. Thereafter my prarabdha changed.
Perhaps I had planned like that in past life, that I would be in ekanta, not doing any work, and that is being worked now. I have been here for the last fifty years, and neither I feel bored nor I have any desire to go anywhere. So also my body is co-operating. How did everything go on like that? We call it our Karma.
Vivekananda Swamiji beautifully put it in a poem:
Behind my work there was ambition,
Therein the plan was made,
To that the body conforms,
And to that the mind,
No one but me to blame.
None but me to blame! So he had planned. When Ramakrishna Paramhansa told him to do loka sangraha, he protested, I want only Atma Jnana". But Ramakrishna said, "No, no sir, you have many things to do" So in 1900 when he went to the West for the second time, sitting by the Thousand Lakes or some place there, he was recapitulating all his past life. Then he found out, "Oh, behind my work there was ambition". What ambition? "I should become world famous, and revive the old system of matha life and sannyasa life. Therefore, to that the body conformed and to that the mind.
He was a young monk, very brilliant. His mind was encyclopedic, his voice did not need a microphone but could reach all of the audience. All these things were necessary for his mission, all these came to fulfill his ambition. It is not a unique occurrence, but it is the same law operating in each one's life. We have our past, we have not started with a clean slate at all. Much is written already, and we have to continue and complete, we can't rest until we reach the goal.
Method
How do we know what particular method is right for us? There is no "how". There is no method. The very desire, sincere desire, to do it is the thing necessary. If you keep up the inspiration in your heart, the method and all help will surely follow.
If you have something to say, no method is necessary: whether you are a graduate or not does not make any difference. Even an illiterate man can talk: if he has something to say, he will express it in his own way. Could Ramakrishna Paramahansa quote from the Upanishads? No, he could only tell what he heard from others; but he could make very good use of it, as is related in the Kathamritam, because the experience was already there in him. He became Atma Jnani, perfecting himself through many births. And because in previous births he had gone through the different stages, in this life he could understand the futility of worldly knowledge, so that all this study was not necessary for him.
The same thing is true with Ramana Maharshi and with any Jnani. It is not a question of names, but we all have to pass through these stages and come to realize that much of what we thought to be so wonderful is futile. Krishnamurti said, "All your acquisitions are but a fistful of ashes". All our achievements are nothing but fistsful of ashes. This one realizes when he comes face to face with the highest truth.
People ask, "What should I do? How should I practice?" although our Swamiji's books are full of answers to these questions."Meditate daily, pray, do Japa, fast on Ekadasi, observe mouna daily for two hours, do charity 1/10th of your income, etc."
So he has given everything. But we imagine that these things are commonplace, and we want something new. We feel it is all commonplace, we have out-grown all that.
But see what Swamiji said, "Through selfless service I have evolved". Though he was a sannyasi he used to carry one bag with peanuts and biscuits everywhere he went, and gave them to children and monkeys he met on the way. In another bag he would carry books and notebooks to write down notes while attending satsanga or discourses on scriptures. In the third one he would carry a first aid-kit to nurse the sick on the way!
Nobody taught him to do that, he is a self-made saint. Only for a day he was with his Guru. All his Guru told him was, "All right, take sannyasa name and sannyasi dress; attend scriptural classes in Kailas Ashram, only then you can benefit from living in this area." After instructing thus he went away for good.
Our Guruji is a Yoga Brashta, which means a person for whose perfection only a little remained to be done. Ninety percent of what remained to be done he cleared in his last birth, only some 10% remained, and that he cleared very quickly. He was very competent: without any body's help, by reading books and exercising discrimination coupled with sound common sense, he gained total illumination.
I am very surprised to see how he wrote his commentary on the Brahma Sutras. He didn't know Sanskrit language well, but he wrote so well! How did he do that? Because Atma Jnana was there, he could understand the whole argument and write in a lucid style that ordinary people could easily follow. Any complicated subject he could grasp and lecture and write in a simple language.
He used to say, "When you talk it should be sweet, short and to the point." That is why even a schoolboy can understand Swamiji's books, while a scholar will enjoy reading them. The most brilliant people used to appreciate Swamiji's writings.
Once, the well-known Sir C.P., who was a very brilliant lawyer and a great scholar, came to Guruji and prostrated to him. He sat there for some time and talked and then left. After he left Swamiji asked me, "O ji, why did he prostrate to me? There's nothing that he does not know. The man knows everything, but yet he prostrated before me." I was wondering what reply I should make. Then he himself declared, "Yes, he knows many things, he knows every thing, but he knows also that he is not a saint!"
While talking to Swamiji he had said, "Swamiji, you are the fourth man to whom I have prostrated. One is Appa (my father), the second one is my Guru, Sringeri Shankaracharya, the third one is Ramana Maharshi." He was a distinguished and a great man, and he was conscious of his greatness.
So, if one is not aware of his own greatness, he is a real saint. It is good to be good, but to be aware of one's goodness is not good. The moment you think you are good, you are no longer good, because the ego took charge and personality emerged.
Shradha
What is faith (shradha)? In the Chandogya Upanishad there is a story of a Guru who teaches his disciple, lk vkRek] rÙoefl Üosrdsrks bfrA several times with explanations. Even then the disciple could not understand fully. J)RLo lkSE;A So the Guru ultimately says, "You have got to have faith." You cannot clear the whole thing by reasoning alone, because when faith is there mental oscillation will not afflict the aspirant.
We must have faith in the rishis, that what they are saying is true, and follow their guidance. When they tell me that I am already perfect, I should believe that, and live up to that, but immediately we block ourselves by saying, "No, no, I don't know, and it might take me at least twenty years. " So we make a program for twenty years.
The very readiness for faith shows the degree of evolution of a seeker. Guruji had it as well as I, but there is a difference: he had unflinching faith and put it into practice without postponement. We cannot do so because we are not so ripe. But a time will come, even for us, when everything will be taken in the proper attitude and light, and we will have no more doubts. And any method can take us to perfection.
If you ask a saint as to how he landed in Truth, he will ask, "Can you find out the footprints of the birds that flew in the sky? Can you trace the route of the fish in the water after they have swum?" In the same way the Jnani doesn't leave his footprints for others to follow.
That is so, because it is not a visible concrete advancement, it is like waking from a dream. One day we shall wake up to Truth from this so called waking state; it is actually something like that. Therefore, before waking, no matter how much we struggle, as long as the dream continues, it is nothing but a dream. Only when you wake up from this ignorance, this dream, this maaya, then that ultimate state will come.